EGYPT
79
EGYPT
of the autumnal equinox, the whole country presents nothing but an immeasurable surface of reddish or j-el- lowish water, out of which rise date-trees, villages, and narrow dams, which serve as a means of commu- nication. After the waters have retreated, wliich usu- alh' remain onh- a short time at this height, you see, till the end of autumn, only a black and slimy mud. But in winter nature puts on all her splendor. In this season, the freshness and power of the new vege- tation, the variety and abundance of vegetable pro- ductions, exceed everything that is known in the most celebrated parts of the European continent ; and Egypt is then, from one end of the countr}' to the other, noth- ing but a beautiful garden, a verdant meadow, a lield sown with flowers, or a waving ocean of grain in the ear.
The climate is very equable, and, to those who can bear great heat, also healthy; indeed, in the opinion of some, the climate of Egypt is one of the finest in the world. There are, however, unwholesome tracts of salt marsh which are to be avoided. Rain seldom falls except on the coast of the Mediterranean. At Thebes a storm will occur, perhaps, not oftener than once in four years. Cultivation nowhere depends upon rain or showers. This absence of rain is men- tioned in Deut. (xi, 10, 11) as rendering artificial irri- gation necessar}', unlike the case of Palestine, and in Zech. (xiv, 18) as peculiar to the countrj'. The at- mosphere is clear and shining; a shade is not easily found. Though rain falls even in the winter months very rarely, it is not altogether wanting, as was once believed. Thunder and lightning are still more un- frequent, and are so completely divested of their ter- rific qualities that the Egj^ptians never associate with them the idea of destructive force. Showers of hail descending from the hills of Syria are sometimes known to reach the confines of Egypt. The forma- tion of ice is very uncommon. Dew is produced in great abundance. The wind blows from the north from !May to September, when it veers round to the east, assumes a southerl)' direction, and fluctuates till the close of April. The southerly vernal winds, trav- ersing the arid sands of Africa, are most changeable as well as most imhealthy. They form the simoom or samiel, and have proved fatal to caravans and even to armies (View of Ancient and Modern Egtjpt, Edin. Cab. Librarj').
Egypt has been visited at all ages hj severe pesti- lences, but it cannot be determined that any of those of ancient times were of the character of the modern plague. The plague with which the Egyptians are threatened in Zech. (1. c.) is described by a word, ri|^r>"2, which is not specially applicable to a pestilence of their country' (see ver. 12). See Botch. Cutane- ous disorders, which have always been very prevalent in Egj'pt, are distinctlj^ mentioned as peculiar to the country (Deut. vii, 15 ; xxviii, 27, 35, GO, and perhaps Exod. XV, 20, though here the reference may be to the plague of boils), and as punishments to the Israelites in case of disobedience, whereas if they obeyed they were to be preserved from them. The Egyptian cal- umny that made the Israelites a body of lepers and unclean (Joseph, c. Apion.) is thus refuted, and the traditional tale as to the Exodus given by Manetho shown to be altogether wrong in its main facts, which depend upon the truth of this assertion. Famines are frequent, and one in the Middle Ages, in the time of the Fatimite caliphate El-JIustansir-billah, seems to have been even more severe than that of Joseph. Mosquitoes, locusts, frogs, together with the small-pox and leprosy, are the great evils of the country. Oph- thalmia is also very prevalent. See Disease.
y. The M7e.— Egypt is the land of the Nile, the country through which that river flows from the island of Philaf, situated just above the Cataracts of Sj'cne, in lat. 24° 1' 36", to Damietta, in 31° 35' N., where
its principal stream pours itself into the Jlediterranean Sea. In lat. 30° 15' the Nile divides into two prin- cipal streams, which, in conjunction with a third that springs somewhat higher up, forms the Delta, so called from its resemblance to the Greek letter A. At Khar- tum, 160 miles north of Sennar, the Nile forks into two rivers, called Bahr el-Abiad and Bahr el-Azrak, or the white and blue river, the former flowing from the west, the latter from the east. The blue river is the smaller of these, but it possesses the same fertilizing cjualities as the Nile, and is of the same color. The sources of this river were discovered by Bruce ; those of the white river were, until quite recently, undiscovered. They are now known to flow from lakes situated among the mountains south of the equator (Beke, Sources of the Nile, Lond. 1860). Most ancient writers mention seven mouths of the Nile, beginning from the east: 1, Pelusiac or Bubastic; 2, Saitic or Tanitic ; 3, Mendesian ; 4, Bucolic or Phatmetic (now of Damiet- ta) ; 5, Sebennj'tic ; 6, Bolbitine (now of Rosetta) ; 7, Canopic or Heracleotic.
The Nile is called in the Bible Shichor', ^"^rr^d, or "the black (river);" also Yem-', '^'Mi'', ^i^^, "the rivr er." As to the phrases C^'^:!^ ^il3, "the river of Egypt," and C!';''n::'a bn, "the brook of Egypt," it seems unlikely that the Nile should be so specified; and PH3 or ^il' here more probably denotes a moun- tain stream, usually dry, on the borders of Egj'pt and Palestine, near the modern El-Arish (Num. xxxiv, 5; Josh, xiii, 3, etc.). See Egypt, River of. Some have thought that ?n3 is the origin of the word Nile ;. others have been anxious to find it in the San- scrit Kila, which means dark blue. The Indus is called Nil-ab, or "the blue river;" the Sutlej also is known as "the blue river." It is to be observed that the Low Nile was painted blue by the ancient Egyp- tians. The river is turbid and reddish throughout the j'ear, and turns f/reen about the time when the signs of rising commence, but not long after becomes red and very turbid. The Coptic word is iom, "sea," which corresponds to the Arab name for it, hahr. prop- erly sea; thus Nahum iii, 3, "Populous No (Thebes), whose rampart was the sea." In Egvptian the Nile bore the sacred appellation HAPI, or HAPI-MU, "the abyss," or "the abyss of waters." As Egypt was divided into two regions, we find two Niles, HA- PI-RES, "the Southern Nile," and HAPI-MEHIT, " the Northern Nile," the former name being given to the river in Upper Egypt and in Nubia. The common appellation is ATUR, or AUR, "the river," which may be compared with the Heb. Yeur.